


In matters of the heart

by kannuki_neru



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Cannibalism, Emotional Manipulation, Insanity, M/M, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Will can never catch a break, in all fairness he did bring it upon himself
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-11
Updated: 2015-08-11
Packaged: 2018-04-14 03:53:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4549305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kannuki_neru/pseuds/kannuki_neru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will finds himself visiting Hannibal for what he thinks are righteous reasons but no one else agrees with his assessment. </p>
<p>In fact, he's not too sure he agrees either. </p>
<p>---<br/><i>He wondered if he'd be able to make Hannibal lose some of his usual poise and finesse, to draw out the animal that had been hungering for him.</i></p>
<p>  <i>He knew that it had been because he felt the same. The beast inside Hannibal and the beast inside himself, both temporarily tethered but circling one another, getting increasingly impatient and angry. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	In matters of the heart

The itch just wouldn't stop.

Will's skin was itching but he found himself with both his hands bound tightly behind him, locked in place, fingers twitching to dig into his own skin and scratch until he felt some sort of relief.

There weren't any physical ties keeping him from doing just that but had he shown how bothered he was by the invisible currents beneath his skin, everyone would see. He wouldn't be able to keep insisting that the itch wasn't spreading, seeping into the tissue and flowing through his body. It felt as if even his blood had been replaced with something darker and more alien, now pumping through his veins so very slowly that it robbed him of his breath.

 

He really should have known that all the good things would end the moment he didn't run away from Jack's car pulling up near his house. The house that he spent a good amount of time fixing, repairing, trying to bring it back to the times when the family living there had been happy. He tried to think that he was playing a role in mending their lives but really now, _''aren't you the one who needs a handful more stitches not to fall apart?''_. It drove him up the wall to hear Hannibal's low, murmuring voice in his head so he forced his brain to make it more distorted, less like the doctor's that kept feeding him poison even from behind five pairs of steel doors.

What Will couldn't stand most of all was the fact that he still found himself sitting rigidly at the table, like the guest of honour he'd always been in Hannibal's house; sitting and waiting for the next serving, arms and legs bound even when there was nothing binding him at all.

It would have all been so much easier if there had been.

 

'

 

Alana could always read him all too easily and she was now looking at him, scanning his face with what looked like a mix of worry and reproach painted on her own. Will supposed that she never stopped feeling an illogical guilt, a sense of having fed him to the wolves, once upon a time.

It was decidedly unnerving to be likened to a lamb like that, as if everyone thought that he was either defenseless or made for good bait to be dangled in front of Hannibal's nose when such need arose. Jack's face flitted briefly in his mind and he scoffed, straightening his back a little and looking back at Alana.

'I'm not letting him in.' he found himself saying and had the circumstances been different, they would have both laughed at how obvious a lie it was. 'Do you really believe that I haven't had enough of his games and constant threats to my continued state of.. well, not being dead?'

Alana tensed and then relaxed her shoulders immediately after. She trained her eyes to look more inscrutable than they had in the past but Will still didn't like the shadows of pity that he could detect in them.

'Yes, I do. I believe you'll never have had enough of him, Will.' she said and pursed her lips into a thin line. She'd grown so much stronger over the years, so much more honest with herself. Being with Margot and becoming a mother had grounded her in ways Will would probably never know in this lifetime. He felt an unreasonable pang of jealousy at that.

'I will endeavour to stop him from killing you in whatever ways I can. But it's very difficult when you keep coming back for more. He'll always wait for you and there you are with your hand ready to knock on the door.'

Words escaped from Alana's mouth and made their way into his head where he considered them logically, acknowledged them and yet still understood that he would make that trip downstairs today, next week, and possibly whenever the bloodied corpses reached out to him for help he couldn't provide alone.

'My life is different now. I won't let him pull on my strings anymore, in fact I did my best to untie them all. I'm a free man now, Alana' he said with a grin that pulled one side of his mouth upward. He knew that his brave look lacked any credibility but Alana looked a little bit more reassured.

 

He closed the door behind him and stepped onto the corridor leading to the lair of the beast.

 

'

 

He had only visited Hannibal's cell a couple of times but each time felt like it had been the hundredth; an endless string of events that kept putting him in the same spot, over and over again. It was as if they both belonged there, on the opposite sides of the glass, always locked in each other's gaze but never capable of understanding one another.

 

'Are you enjoying this, Dr. Lecter?' Will asked him one of those times, with more acid than he perhaps intended.

Hannibal raised his eyebrows in a perfectly arranged expression of faked surprise. His eyes betrayed a glint of mischief and he licked his lips before delivering another practiced answer.

'Are you suggesting that I delay giving you the full capacity of my help because I want to see whatever plan our mysterious beast of a boy has put into action through?'

Will stared at him. Hannibal did have an unnerving habit of stating the truth in such a way that it seemed a ridiculous lie and yet few people could see past the veneer.

'That's exactly what I'm suggesting.'

Will found himself at a loss for words. There was nothing else he could say and words felt insufficient, constricting; they were stifling all the things he really wanted to say to Hannibal. If they could throw them all away and find an alternative way to communicate would they finally reach a conclusion?

'You're wrong, Will. But I do hope that you'll keep visiting me, regardless of any homicidal maniacs running amok outside. Your company has always been most welcome.'

Hannibal smiles at him with something that resembles warmth and Will feels a large, black moth flitting around inside his skull and his heart, his heart is sinking, becoming heavier and heavier still. _''It would make for a hearty meal''_ , he thinks with weak amusement and can't help smiling back.

 

'

 

Will made his nightly call to Molly, relished the temporary feeling of normalcy and all the good things, all the unassuming things that should make him content. A bitter trail of guilt wandered down his from his mind to his heart, clutched at it uncomfortably and held still. He knew that it was both cruel and ridiculous to even attempt to spoil something that he didn't even deserve. He had been offered salvation and warmth but now he found himself chewing it politely with a forced smile, his thoughts trailing off to a very different kind of table.

He thought back to all the times they had feasted together and how the obliviousness made it very simple and uncomplicated. How would a feast of now look like? Would Hannibal snap someone's neck with terrifying ease and serve eyeballs cleverly disguised as something else entirely?

Hannibal in his head smiled indulgently. _''I don't have to hide myself from you now, Will''_

'No, you don't' Will said to the darkness of the room and tried to stop thinking completely, tried not to imagine the two of them talking and sharing comfort, peace and thrill at the table, then finishing the meal and his own hand snaking out to grasp Hannibal's wrist. He would surely be surprised at first but Will didn't doubt that it'd at least earn him a big smile that spoke of nothing like the dull complacency that his life had become. Will's skin pulsed with the anticipation for what would come next, how hungrily they would devour each other's mouths. He wondered if he'd be able to make Hannibal lose some of his usual poise and finesse, to draw out the animal that had been hungering for him.

He knew that it had been because he felt the same. The beast inside Hannibal and the beast inside himself, both temporarily tethered but circling one another, getting increasingly impatient and angry. Would Hannibal ever stroke his face again liked he did when he cut into his guts? Would he hold him instead, after they were done fucking on every surface in the room?

 

Will sighed and forced his eyes shut.

 

'

 

'Hello, Dr. Lecter. How are you?' Will said, his eyes looking sad behind glasses that were never a very good shield anyway.

'Always better when you're here', Hannibal says and gives him a shameless smile. He's testing the waters, reaching out a hand grasping a piece of bloody, raw meat, pushing it into the face of the rabid dog that he turned him into.

Will looks down at the files and documents he's clutching and he hears a roar somewhere in the distance. He can no longer tell which of the two beasts it belongs to but the importance of that starts to wane.

 

He scratches idly at the tethers binding him and to his surprise the maddening itch subsides for a second. He scratches more and the rope frays a tiny bit more, he's sure of it but he can't see it. _''Ah...''_

He feels Hannibal lying in wait, his teeth undoubtedly ready to bite through his own bindings at any given second. His teeth look very sharp when he smiles.

''Will?'

He makes the mistake of meeting Hannibal's eyes.

 

He lunges forward.

 

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the song "Laura Palmer" by Bastille. I watched this amazing Hannigram fanvideo by dreaminlara on YouTube... and then I just had to do SOMETHING. Can we please let those two poor hungered individuals bite into their... unresolved issues? (can you tell that I really enjoy cannibalism/eating puns? sorry! :D)


End file.
